Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/138

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. in. FEB. is, 1911.

THOMAS JAMES THACKERAY (11 S. iii. 28). This is evidently the person referred to in " Great Writers " (' Life of Thackeray,' p. 202, foot-note). He is believed to have been a member of the Thackeray family, and possibly belonged to Yorkshire. In Alli- bone's ' Dictionary ' T. J. Thackeray is said to have been a captain in the Army, and to have written 'Lectures on Rifle Firing,' 1853 (3rd ed., 1858), and ' Military, Organization and Administration of France,' 1856.

w. s. s.

THACKERAY AND THE STAGE (US. iii. 28, 91). The farce of ' Jeames,' about which S. J. A. F. inquires, was produced at the Princess's Theatre in December, 1845.

WM. DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill, S.W.

'THE FLYING DUTCHMAN' (US. iii. 48, 95). Doubtless the above poem was written by Ellen Mary Clerke, sister of Agnes Mary Clerke, the well-known writer on astronomy who died at 68, Redcliffe Square, in January, 1907.

They were born at Skibbereen in county Cork, and the elder sister (the poetess) died only ten months before Agnes, as may be seen in Lady Huggins's * Appreciation ' reviewed in The Athenceum of 7 September, 1907.

I met the two sisters 40 years ago at Naples, and renewed my acquaintance with the sur- viving sister Agnes in March, 1906, only a few months before her regretted death. She presented me with a copy of her sister Ellen's book on Italian folk-lore, &c., dedi- cated to Dr. Garnett of the British Museum.

I alluded to the Clerkes in my Teply on k Inscriptions at Naples ' printed at 10 S. ix. 17. WILLIAM MERCER.

' DEATH OF CAPT. COOK ' (11 S. iii. 87). Darley, a native of Birmingham, was a bass singer of repute at Covent Garden Theatre and Vauxhall Gardens. He was the original Farmer Blackberry in O'Keeffe's musical farce of ' The Farmer.' Visiting America about 1799, he established an inferior kind of Vauxhall at Philadelphia, but re- turned to this country, where he died in 1809.

Blurton, Cranfield, and Miss Francis were performers of the humblest class.

WM. DOUGLAS.

If R. H. will send me his address, I may be able to give him some information about two of the members of the cast.

H. S. GUINNESS.

Stillorgan, co. Dublin.

at Covent Garden in 1789, was produced on the Edinburgh stage on 23 February, 1790. By Dibdin ( ' Annals of the Edinburgh Stage ' > it is called a "grand serious pantomime,' r and he adds that "the scenery seems to have been unusually good." Williamson took the part of Capt. Cook in the Edin- burgh cast, but the names of the other players are not mentioned. Row TAY.
 * The Death of Capt. Cook,' performed

MONTAGU G. DRAKE (US. iii. 29, 72). Montague Garrard Drake, Esq., of Sharde- loes, co. Buckingham, M.P. for Agmondes- ham in 1713, 1715, and 1727, and for the county of Buckingham in 1722, was son of Montague Drake and Jane, dau. and heiress of Sir John Garrard, Bt., of Lamer. He died 1728. See Burke's * Landed Gentry/ 4th ed. R. J. FYNMORE.

GATAKER (U.S. ii. 409). No person of this name seems to have graduated in Dublin University at the close of the eigh- teenth century. The name does not appear in the catalogue of graduates of the Uni- versity from 1591 to 1868. The nearest approach to the name which I can find in the catalogue is Gattager, William, B.A. Vern. 1809. P. A. MCELWAINE.

PRICKLY PEAR AND MONREALE CATHE- DRAL (11 S. iii. 87). MR. LANGTON will find this question discussed in Yule-Burnell's ' Hobson-Jobson,' 2nd ed., 1903, p. 732 ; and at 8 S. viii. 254. Another contributor (9 S. iii. 469) quotes a statement of E. A. Freeman, the historian, who identified the plant in the mosaics (Dean Stephens, * Life and Letters of Freeman,' vol. ii. p. 361).

EMERITUS.

In Prof. J. B. Bury's ' History of Greece r (published 1902), p. 21, there is figured a fragment of a richly decorated silver vessel found at Mycenae. On it is the representa- tion of a siege scene, in which the most conspicuous vegetation is a plant bearing a striking resemblance to the prickly pear. It has large, and apparently fleshy, leaves similar in shape to the prickly pear, sparsely covered with spines. Whatever the plant may be, it is very probably identical with that which MR. LANGTON saw depicted in the Biblical scenes in Monreale Cathedral. Per- haps some botanical reader familiar with the vegetation of lands bordering on the Mediter- ranean can tell us what it is.

JOHN T. KEMP.